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Thursday, July 28, 2011

Damn Windows 7

Either I have turned into a certified "old fart," or Microsoft never considered people like us when they developed Windows 7.

Our grandson, Zachary, is visiting us for the third summer. It is really nice to have him onboard BeBe. He offers to help with anything and wants to learn everything...he is 10. I have promised him a Midshipman's rating if he continues to learn all the nautical stuff I am teaching him...frankly, he deserves it now, but I am not telling him until the end of the summer.

Well, anyway, Zachary brought his own laptop with him this summer, and it is loaded with Windows 7. It seems as though Microsoft decided that Windows 7 will update itself without any user input. Zachary's computer downloaded 3 gigs of MS updates today. Not so bad if you are sitting in Fort Home, USA, but when you pay 10 Euro per gig, it is a little upsetting to get dinged $43.00USD and not know what the hell it was for! Damn Microsoft!

3 comments:

In any you haven't found where to turn the automatic update off yet, go to Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Update. Click Change Settings. Then choose Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them.

Yes, we definitely agree that you can spend a lot of money on Internet time if you don't know about this.

There is a free program called "Update Freezer" (icejs.exe) which will keep track of all those programs that would normally automatically update (not just Windows updates, but also Adobe, Facebook, etc.). With one action you can freeze (stop) all those automatic updates from happening, e.g. when you bring your computer on the boat. You can just as easily unfreeze (i.e. allow updates) whenever you have free unlimited WiFi. Update Freezer will also allow individual programs to be frozen or unfrozen on demand. I have found this to be very useful.